Putin preparing for next Crimea? Russia using exercises to mass troops at Europe border
RUSSIA is secretly gathering troops at Europe’s border by pretending its carrying out training drills, Nato officials have claimed.
By TOM BATCHELOR IN WROCLAW, POLAND
Express.co.uk
Sat, May 28, 2016
The Kremlin is carrying out ‘snap exercises’ to use a legal loophole to dodge an obligation to invite international observers, the experts believe.
Russia has carried out at least a dozen of the military exercises, called at short or no notice, over the past two years.
Defence chiefs at the Belgium-based alliance fear they could be a front for preparations leading to a massing of troops along Europe’s border.
A Nato source speaking to Express.co.uk said Russia was using the loophole to circumvent the Vienna accord and build up troop numbers in sensitive locations on Europe’s doorstep.
The source said: “What Russia is doing is not illegal but it is bending the rules.”
Fears around Vladimir Putin’s secretive programme of short-notice drills appears to be justified.
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